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Why do i get the hiccups so often: Hiccups – Symptoms and causes

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Why Do I Keep Getting Hiccups? 7 Causes

Why Do I Keep Getting Hiccups? 7 Causes

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  • Why do I keep getting hiccups?

  • What is a hiccup?

  • 1. Eating too much or too fast

  • 2. Swallowing air

  • 3. Acid reflux

  • 4. Drinking too much alcohol

  • 5. Pregnancy

  • 6. Stress

  • 7. Damage to your central nervous system

  • How to get rid of hiccups

  • When to see a doctor

  • Insider’s takeaway

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This article was medically reviewed by Jason R. McKnight, MD, MS, a family medicine physician and clinical assistant professor at Texas A&M College of Medicine. 

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Drinking alcohol can irritate the lining of your stomach, causing hiccups.

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  • Why do I keep getting hiccups?

  • What is a hiccup?

  • 1. Eating too much or too fast

  • 2. Swallowing air

  • 3. Acid reflux

  • 4. Drinking too much alcohol

  • 5. Pregnancy

  • 6. Stress

  • 7. Damage to your central nervous system

  • How to get rid of hiccups

  • When to see a doctor

  • Insider’s takeaway

  • You may keep getting hiccups if you eat too much too fast or are under a lot of stress.
  • Drinking carbonated water, chewing gum, and smoking can all cause hiccups from swallowing air.
  • Chronic hiccups that don’t disappear after 48 hrs can be from a serious medical condition like diabetes.

Why do I keep getting hiccups?

Hiccups can be annoying, especially if you get them on a regular basis. 

Most of the time, hiccups are caused by everyday behaviors, like eating too quickly or drinking alcohol, and they usually go away on their own within a few minutes to several hours. 

But in some cases, hiccups can last a lot longer — more than two days — and may be a sign of an underlying issue like acid reflux or damage to your central nervous system, which may require medical treatment.

There is no certain method that can stop hiccups. In fact, the longest known and recorded bout of hiccups lasted 68 years. However, some over-the-counter or prescription medications may help if your hiccups persist for more than two days.

Here are seven reasons why you might get the hiccups, what you can do to stop hiccupping, and when it’s time to see a doctor about them.

What is a hiccup?

“Hiccups are caused by spasms of the muscles that control breathing,” says Troy Madsen, MD, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Utah.

Specifically, your diaphragm, the large muscle at the base of your lungs, and the muscles in your chest can spasm suddenly. This is “similar to a muscle spasm you might feel in your calf muscle,” Madsen says.

When these muscles spasm, this leads you to breathe in rapidly and causes your throat to close off very briefly, leading to the “hic” sound of hiccups.

1. Eating too much or too fast

Eating too much or too quickly can cause your stomach to expand beyond its normal size.

As your stomach expands, it can press on or irritate your diaphragm, which sits at the top of your abdomen, Madsen says. This then leads to your diaphragm sharply spasming or contracting, triggering a hiccup.

“Chewing your food well prevents air from being trapped within the food particles, thus reducing the chance of hiccups,” says Subhankar Chakraborty, MD, PhD, a gastroenterologist at The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center.

If you have hiccups from overeating, you may need to wait until the food is digested until you feel better. But in the meantime, you can take a walk to help your stomach empty more quickly. Also, make sure not to lie down, as this can slow stomach emptying.

2. Swallowing air

Your stomach can also expand from swallowing air, which pushes on your diaphragm and triggers hiccups. This can happen in several different ways, including:

  • Chewing gum: Even if you don’t realize it, you may be swallowing air as you chew gum, especially if you open your mouth while chewing.
  • Carbonated drinks: Swallowing the carbon dioxide bubbles in drinks like soda and seltzer can fill your stomach with gas and trigger burping or hiccups.
  • Smoking: People who smoke constantly swallow air, which may cause hiccups.
  • Eating too fast: Eating quickly increases the amount of air that you swallow.

If you’ve swallowed too much air, burping may help release some of it, but you should also stop chewing gum, drinking soda, or smoking until the hiccups subside.

3. Acid reflux

Acid reflux is a condition that happens when stomach acid flows up into your throat or esophagus. Many things can trigger acid reflux including:

  • Eating spicy or fried food
  • Consuming alcohol or coffee
  • Eating late at night

Reflux can cause hiccups because “the esophagus passes next to the diaphragm, and the irritation in this area can lead to spasms of this large muscle,” Madsen says.

To stop a bout of reflux-related hiccups, it may help to take over the counter antacid medications like Tums or Pepcid.

4. Drinking too much alcohol

There are two main reasons that drinking alcohol can cause hiccups:

  1. Alcohol is highly acidic and can irritate the lining of your stomach and esophagus, which can cause hiccups. It can also trigger acid reflux, which has a similar irritating effect, Chakraborty says.
  2. Certain types of alcohol are carbonated, like beer and mixed drinks. Just like when you drink soda, the carbon dioxide expands your stomach and leads to hiccups, Madsen says.

Cutting down your drinking or avoiding carbonated drinks may help you avoid bouts of hiccups.

5. Pregnancy

A growing baby may put pressure on the diaphragm, which can trigger hiccups. Acid reflux is also a common side effect of pregnancy and known to trigger hiccups.

There’s not much you can do about a growing fetus but there are ways to manage heartburn-related hiccups during pregnancy like avoiding trigger foods, eating smaller more frequent meals, and neutralizing stomach acid with some milk or yogurt.

6. Stress

“It’s unclear exactly how stress causes hiccups,” Madsen says, but there are a couple of theories about how it happens.

  1. Accidentally swallowing air. “When we’re stressed we often hyperventilate, and some of that air might make it into our stomach instead of into our lungs,” Madsen says. When this happens, your stomach expands, leading to hiccups.
  2. Nervous system disruption. When you feel especially stressed or anxious, this can disturb the nerve pathways between your brain and your diaphragm, triggering hiccups.

If you’re hiccupping and feeling overwhelmed with stress, there are several relaxation methods you can try, such as breathing exercises and meditation.

7. Damage to your central nervous system

If your hiccups last an especially long time, this may be a sign of underlying damage or abnormality of your hiccup reflux, says Alison Kearney, MRCP, a palliative care doctor at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in Australia.

Long-term hiccups are rare and fall into two main categories:

  1. Persistent hiccups, which last longer than 48 hours.
  2. Intractable hiccups, which last for longer than one month.

Long-term hiccups may be a sign that you have damage to your brain or central nervous system, Kearney says. This is because you have several nerves that transmit information between your brain and upper abdomen, including your diaphragm.

“This means that there are parts of the brain which, if damaged by tumor or stroke, can induce hiccups,” Kearney says.

Your normal hiccup reflex can also be disrupted by nerve-damaging conditions like:

  • Traumatic brain injury
  • Multiple sclerosis
  • Meningitis
  • Diabetes
  • Encephalitis

How to get rid of hiccups

There’s no sure-fire way to get rid of hiccups and they generally resolve on their own. However, you can try various unproven home remedies such as drinking water quickly, holding your breath, or breathing into a paper bag.

“There are no large studies regarding the efficacy of home remedies, but they are generally harmless,” says Hanan Tanuos, MD, FAAP, director of pediatric primary care at the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

If your hiccups are a symptom of a serious condition, then curing the hiccups means treating whatever the underlying medical condition is, says Chakraborty.

If you have persistent or intractable hiccups, then it’s time to turn to medications like: 

  • Metoclopramide: An over-the-counter medication for stomach and esophageal problems
  • Chlorpromazine: a prescription drug approved for hiccups

When to see a doctor

It’s best to see your health care provider for an evaluation if your hiccups last more than 48 hours straight, says Karen W. Lin, MD, professor at the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health in the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.  

According to Chakraborty, a variety of medical conditions may also cause long-term hiccups, which include:

  • Nervous system disorders such as stroke, brain trauma, or brain tumor
  • Digestive issues like hiatal hernia or intestinal ulcers
  • Respiratory disorders such as pneumonia, bronchitis, or asthma
  • Cardiovascular conditions like pericardial inflammation, aneurysm of the aorta, or myocardial ischemia
  • Medications like narcotics, sedatives, steroids, and chemotherapy medicines

Insider’s takeaway

“Hiccups can be caused by a number of things but rarely are something that requires a trip to the ER or to your doctor,” Madsen says. 

In most cases, they’re caused by an everyday issue like eating too quickly, feeling anxious, or swallowing air, and hiccups generally go away on their own in a matter of minutes to hours. 

“If hiccups last more than 48 hours, though, it would be worth talking with your doctor who may consider further testing or treatment for your hiccups,” says Madsen.

Erin Heger

Erin Heger is a freelance journalist located in the Kansas City area. She primarily covers stories related to healthcare policy, maternal mental health, parenting, and personal finance. Her work been featured in The Atlantic, Rewire.News, Refinery29, HuffPost, and more. 

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Carla Delgado

Freelance Reporter, Insider Reviews

Carla is a Filipino freelance health & culture journalist with bylines in Insider, Architectural Digest, Elemental, Observer, and Mental Floss. Outside of writing, she works for local theatre productions as a stage manager and assistant sound operator.
Learn more about how our team of experts tests and reviews products at Insider here.

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Hiccups – NHS

Most people get hiccups sometimes. They should only last a few minutes. You can usually wait for them to go away or treat them yourself without seeing a GP.

Things you can do yourself to stop or prevent hiccups

Although many people find these things helpful for stopping hiccups, there’s no evidence that they work for everyone.

Do

  • breathe into a paper bag (do not put it over your head)

  • pull your knees up to your chest and lean forward

  • sip ice-cold water

  • swallow some granulated sugar

  • bite on a lemon or taste vinegar

  • hold your breath for a short time

Don’t

  • do not drink alcoholic, fizzy or hot drinks

  • do not chew gum or smoke – these can cause you to swallow air

  • do not eat spicy food

  • do not eat food very quickly

  • do not eat or drink something very cold immediately after something hot

Why we get hiccups

There’s often no obvious reason why you get hiccups, but some people find certain things trigger their hiccups, such as:

  • stress
  • strong emotions, like excitement
  • eating and drinking

In rare cases, hiccups that last longer than 48 hours can be due to a medical condition or a medicine you’re taking.

Non-urgent advice: See a GP if:

  • hiccups last longer than 48 hours
  • hiccups come back very often and are affecting your life

Treatment for hiccups from a GP

A GP will want to find out if your hiccups are caused by a health condition or medicine you’re taking.

Treating the condition or changing your medicine should stop your hiccups.

If there’s no obvious cause, they might be able to prescribe a medicine called chlorpromazine to treat your hiccups. This does not work for everyone.

Page last reviewed: 23 June 2023
Next review due: 23 June 2026

Causes and Quick Remedies

Hiccups: Causes and Quick Remedies

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  • Hiccups: Causes and Quick Remedies

Hiccuping is an uncontrolled physiological reaction, in the development of which the phrenic nerve, vagus nerve, and centers of the brain are involved. During hiccups, the intercostal and diaphragmatic muscles tighten, as when inhaling, but the airways overlap, so there is a short breath hold. People hiccup with a characteristic sound, which is caused by the sharp closing of the vocal folds.

Why hiccups occur

Hiccups help to remove excess air from the stomach, so its periodic appearance is not considered a problem. It can occur with a hasty meal, talking while eating. Also, the symptom occurs during laughter, accompanied by a series of quick breaths and overflow of the stomach with air.

The second physiological reason for the appearance of hiccups is irritation of the fibers of the phrenic and vagus nerves, which triggers a specific reflex. The situation most often occurs when the stomach is overdistended with a large amount of food, when swallowing large pieces that hardly pass through the esophagus, after taking spicy, too hot or cold food. In some people, hiccups are provoked by hypothermia, stress, and drinking alcohol.

Long-term hiccups that occur frequently and without association with typical precipitating factors usually indicate a health problem. Possible causes of an unpleasant symptom:

● gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), diaphragmatic hernia and other diseases of the esophagus;

● diseases of the liver, pancreas, stomach and intestines;

● diseases of the chest organs – pleurisy, pneumonia, pericarditis, myocardial infarction;

● pathology of the nervous system: encephalitis, intracranial hypertension, traumatic brain injury, tumors of the posterior cranial fossa.

How to deal with hiccups

There are quite a few ways to quickly eliminate hiccups:

● breath holding for 20-30 s;

● a series of deep and slow breaths;

● drinking several sips of water;

● torso tilt forward;

● sucking on an ice cube;

● eating a piece of lemon or other product with a sharp taste;

● inhalation of ammonia;

● pulling the tongue forward for a few seconds.

These simple actions have one of two goals: to stimulate the vagus nerve to stop pathological impulses, or to increase the concentration of carbon dioxide in the blood, as a result of which the nervous regulation of the respiratory system normalizes. Usually a person needs to try several methods and choose the most suitable for himself.

Short-term hiccups pass without a trace and do not have a negative effect on the body, so it is not at all necessary to use the above methods. The person may simply wait a few minutes for the symptom to subside and then return to daily activities.

When to see a doctor

Hiccups that last for several hours and do not disappear after all the methods described in the previous section may be one of the first signs of an organic disease. In such a situation, patients are advised to visit a doctor in order to exclude or confirm the presence of a pathology, to start treatment on time.

The initial consultation is conducted by an ID-Clinic therapist who receives patients at the clinic and provides online consultations via video link. The doctor will analyze the symptoms, ask clarifying questions, refer you for an extended examination and consultation of highly specialized specialists, if necessary.

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